


Always Dreaming

by Moonpuff



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: I write at like 2am, MAJOR DANGANRONPA V3 SPOILERS, Um I'm not very good at writing criticism is appreciated
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 06:39:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10893813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonpuff/pseuds/Moonpuff
Summary: -- WARNING: MAJOR DANGANRONPA V3: KILLING HARMONY SPOILERS --Yumeno sees her deceased friend in a dream, and it soon becomes a reoccurring thing. Not only for her but for her two other friends as well. In a week's time, the battlefield they stand on would be gone. And so would their guilt.





	Always Dreaming

"It felt so... Real..." His breath was shaky, and he stared down at his vibrating hands. He clasped his palms over his head and let out a pained yell; in the attempt to remember something, anything.

"They were right there," He whispered, a lump in his throat. "They were all alive, all in front of me."

"Shuichi, you're hallucinating," A long haired girl stated blankly. "Are you sure you've been getting enough sleep?" 

"Yeah, yeah..." The boy stopped, removing his hands from his crown and setting them on his lap. "Is Yumeno-san awake yet?" 

The brunette nodded her head. "Her eyes are red; I think she was crying. Do you want to check up on her?" She asked.

"Sure." The boy nodded and finger-combed his hair as he stood up from his spot he had fallen asleep in. The ruins of the school made his knees shiver- and he made sure to watch his step with the rubble under his feet. 

He came to the door, it brought back memories from weeks before. They may have been weeks but those weeks felt like centuries. It was himself, a little red-haired girl and... Who else...? It was a blank face stuck in his mind.

Nevermind, the boy shook his head and knocked on the door once.

Twice. 

Thrice.

No reply. 

The boy shook it off, she was most likely asleep. Therefore, he opened the door slowly and with caution to almost a completely different world. It was almost the same, except the rubble that lay around the room; just as it had been before. 

But the only difference was that she wasn't there; the little girl. 

Himiko Yumeno, a "magician", but of course with their replaced memories Saihara didn't know what to believe. She looked very frail, and after a certain point in the games, she had reached rock bottom. 

Saihara looked around the room, gliding his hands across a cauldron in the center. It was covered in rubble, and a large crack had been placed on its front side. On another side of the room was a hat; a witch's hat to be exact. Like a torn, worn ragdoll it lay on the floor in pieces. He picked up the hat and swiftly noticed it had been there longer than they had been at the school. Saihara tossed the hat aside, scanned around the room a final time, then noticed that the girl was nowhere to be found.

"Yumeno-san?" He called out as he walked out the room, he continued to chant her name. The hall was so silent even a pin dropping could be heard. Suddenly, he heard the thumps of something, or someone, running above him. He felt a lump in his throat- the school was unstable and could collapse at any point. The stomping continued, and Saihara became further away from it as he entered the main hall. 

"Saihara, what's up?" Harukawa walked up to him. Despite her small frame, Harukawa could have definitely caught up to Himiko by now if Saihara wasn't out of breath.

Saihara placed his hands on his thighs and took a deep breath, leaning up and placing his palm on his chest. "Yumeno-san," He said in a hoarse voice. "She's upstairs. Running."

Harukawa paused, then put her finger to her lips and suddenly shushed him. She then moved her finger upwards, to the third floor, which was barely visible from their view. A flash of red runs past the banister, immediately stopping when Harukawa shouts:

"Yumeno!" Maki was yelling, her foot planted tightly on the ground. "You know it's not safe up there; come down here." 

The tip of a hat peeked out from the banister, and under that was a scowling face, staring down at them. "It's important!" She cried and then continued to run away from them. Maki ground her teeth, and began to sprint in the direction of the stairs, followed by Saihara. 

It was clear Yumeno had a difficult time moving the rubble, as it was cluttered and moved aside lazily. Harukawa was barely able to see it, but Yumeno was attempting her way up to the fourth floor. She would carefully place her boots on each rock and then carried herself up the stairs and out of their view. Harukawa and Shuichi raced after her but quickly lost her coordinations once they were at the top of the steps. 

"Yumeno!" "Yumeno-san?" Voices echoed in the empty hall, and they continued their way. Past Shinguuji's study, past the bizarre red hallway that gave Shuichi goosebumps and all the way to Angie's study. 

Feeling his hand against the coldness of the knob, Shuichi remembered the day of the third trial. He had least expected Angie's corpse to be behind the door of all things. He quickly brushed it off, opening the door. 

A gust of wind slapped Saihara across the face and a gashing hole was in the way of the study. Sitting near the edge of the wall was the small girl they had been searching for. 

Before Harukawa nor Saihara could say a word, she whispered; "It still smells like her." Yumeno looked up from her zoned out mood, up at the sky. She tilted her head at the glance of the sky, split into pieces like a dropped teacup.

"Like... Who?" Saihara paused, both Maki and him locked in the doorway. 

"It smells like... Pineapples..." Yumeno mumbled, her eyes fixated on the sky. "Yonaga always smelt like pineapples." 

"Yumeno, are you alright? First, you run off ahead of us then you-" Harukawa stopped in her tracks when Yumeno turned her head. Her cheeks stained with tears and eyes red from tears. Her skin had lost its peachy tint and was replaced with a pale white, and her cheeks bright red. She hiccuped, and swallowed a cry; she then turned her head back to the sky. 

"I saw Yonaga in a dream last night..." Yumeno's eyebrows furrowed as if struggling to tell the tale. "I..."

Saihara walked over to her and set a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Go on." He said, and Yumeno turned to him, then away.

"It was an empty, white void. There were... drawings all along the sides of the box... Thing... Anyway, I saw Yonaga. She waved at me and smiled... Like she used to smile..." Yumeno took another deep breath and continued. "She told me we could go anywhere! Because it was 'Angie's playhouse' and I told her I wanted to go get ice-cream... So... That's what we did... I- I know it sounds dumb but... I was willing to do anything with her... I miss her!" Yumeno began to choke up sobs, pushing her hands against her cheeks. 

Harukawa took both of Yumeno's shoulders and faced the girl. "It's not dumb," She stated. "What else happened?" Harukawa wiped Yumeno's tears with her thumbs and gripped both her hands tightly. 

"W-Well..." Yumeno continued to sob but tried her hardest not to with the encouragement of Maki. "We... Went to a booth and... She got avocado ice-cream and I got r-red velvet and we ate them together... And... She told me she was sorry and then... She hugged me." She clenched her fists together and coughed up a sob. Yumeno turned her head down and fixated her vision on the unsteady wooden planks under them. 

Silence took over the room, the only thing heard were the child-like cries from Yumeno. Everyone was speechless- and it was true. Angie's bright personality and smile always lit up the room like a candle in a black oblivion. Everyone contributed to that light, and now it was nothing but a faint flicker. 

✩ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩

"The tea is good, thank you, Harukawa-san," Shuichi said. "How is your's, Yumeno-san?" 

The mage nodded slightly and took another sip of her tea. The tea fogged her eyes with a boiling temperature, and it left an odd feeling of warmth on her tongue. She ignored the feeling, of course. "Thank you, Harukawa..." 

Maki nodded, and then took her seat at the cafeteria table, which was broken in half by the explosion. Setting down her own cup of tea, Maki glanced up to see how Yumeno had been after the entire ordeal. Her eyes were still with red circles, and eyes bloodshot from crying, but she seemed calmer. Her eyes downcast to the table and Shuichi was attentively watching her.

"Are you... Feeling any better, Yumeno-san?" Saihara said, and Yumeno's eyes quickly darted up at the sudden voice. She nodded, then looked back down at her tea, which steamed into a visible gas. It swirled in the sky in patterns like a painting, twirling and curling across the air. It seemed to calm Yumeno; as she watched every movement the steam made. 

"Sorry for overreacting," Yumeno said. "It's my fault. I took the situation too far and I miss everyone very much." She swirled her cup around, watching the liquid slide smoothly around in circles. 

"It's understandable," Maki replied. "You don't need to apologize." Yumeno nodded, although it was clear she wasn't listening. "Are you going to finish your tea?" Maki asked, and Yumeno shook her head, pushing herself along with the chair she was sitting in away from the table's remains. 

"It was good, thanks," Yumeno noted, then took her teacup and shuffled over to the kitchen sink. She poured the rest of her tea into the sink and set the cup itself aside. "I'm going to be going outside..." She opened the door carefully; as if it was going to fall off its hinges. She turned around and closed the door behind her, and the sound of her steps faded away soon. 

The silence stood between Maki and Shuichi for a while. Maki soon stormed off, calmly waving to Shuichi as she left; that left Shuichi alone to his thoughts.

✩ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩

The ground was much harder than Himiko was used to. The doors of the dorms were caved in, therefore they couldn't enter there and were forced to sleep under the stars. It was a rough texture, much worse than their beds, but it wasn't as bad as a pile of nails. Thankfully, she had never slept on one. Yumeno extended a hand to the sky; which was shattered to millions of shards. She sighed, unable to get the picture of Angie out of her head. Embroidered into her brain, she sat up on the rocky ground and glanced around the dark terrain. Like a desert, it was dead; no life except her own beating heart. 

The only life was her, and a buzzing, vibrating Monopad in her coat pocket. She jumped slightly and pulled her jacket open to reveal a large pocket- where she stashed her Monopad. It buzzed violently, and her hands shook with it. A virtual cellphone was shaking on her screen; it hurt her eyes, the sudden light practically blinded her. 

"Accept." She whispered under her breath, her voice mimicking her actions as she pressed the green button under the telephone. Then, a voice echoed through the empty world. 

"Thank you for answering our call, Yumeno Himiko-san," A sophisticated voice resounded from the monopad. A female, adult voice was on the other line. "This is Araki Yasu from Team Danganronpa in Tokyo, Japan." Yumeno pursued her lips together and bit her lip from behind her clenched teeth. 

"What do ya' want...?" She growled. The voice on the other line drew quiet. Yumeno gripped the tablet tighter, becoming bothered by the lack of response. She waited half a minute, one minute; then she became agitated. "I said, what do you want?!" Yumeno shrieked, she hadn't yelled in a while and she felt relieved to let it out.

Yet even with her attempt, there was no response from the woman. What replaced her voice was a deadpan robot-like one. It said, "Please collect your belongings over the next 7 days, then you will receive your cash prize." 

Yumeno didn't even get a response in before an alarming tone sounded; she paused, in the attempt to take in the sentence she had received. She stood from her spot and placed both her feet on the dirt, which was sparse with grass. There was absolutely no life and the echo of her dropped Monopad reflected in the bird's cage she stood in. Absolutely speechless; Yumeno stood in silence, with only herself and the spirits of her deceased friends. Abruptly, her feet began to pace against the uneven rubble and grass across the campus- unknown to her where she was going. 

With a hop over a split door, her footsteps echoed in the hallway; previously filled with life and plants, all that was left were the dread and guilt that her friends weren't saved. Brushing off the feeling, Yumeno stumbled next to the cafetorium and slammed open the door with a haunting screech. 

Unfortunately, only Saihara's empty teacup sat peacefully on the table. Yumeno paused, and walked through the hole in the wall almost silently; where she had heard some sort of noise. 

To her luck, there was Saihara, gripping the banister to the porch. He was most definitely zoned out, and his eyes were focused on the evident gap in the enclosure, made by K1-B0's gallant sacrifice. 

Yumeno gripped the ends of her sleeves and bit her lower lip. "Hey, Shuichi..." She whimpered. "Could I... Tell ya' something?"

Saihara snapped from his thoughts and turned his gaze to meet Yumeno's. "Sure... What is it?" Saihara said.

"I... I got a call," Yumeno told him bluntly. Saihara turned his body sharply to face her. "From Team Danganronpa."

At these words, Saihara tensed. "Team... Danganronpa? What did they say?" 

"A deadline," She answered. "They're coming in a week... That's all they said."

Saihara gulped, absolutely speechless. In a sudden idea, he chose to change the topic as he didn't want to push Yumeno for any other unnecessary information. "So... Are you tired?"

Himiko glanced down at the blemished wood and nodded. "I am... Can we still all sleep together...?" 

Shuichi nodded as well, and he walked with Yumeno back inside, and down the hallways. His hand laid on her back and rubbed circles sympathetically. 

✩ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩

"Harukawa...?" Saihara glanced at Maki, who had her legs crossed while she sat in a pile of rubble. "Did you hear?" 

Maki nodded, though she didn't look at the two. "I heard... I think we should rest. I can tell you're both tired." 

"I guess..." Yumeno said. "Harukawa... Come rest with us." 

Maki's shoulders visibly tensed, and her eyes became a bright red. "Fine..." She whispered, and then stood up. 

Yumeno's mouth was still slightly agape on the way back after a single yawn. She fiddled with the hem of her skirt as she walked; her skirt was naturally short, so as she rubbed her hands anxiously the ruffles on the end of her bloomers were revealed. Of course, Yumeno didn't care, as she was already half asleep. 

Saihara, on the other hand, was wide awake. After hearing the news from Himiko, he felt a rush of energy through his veins. His mind boggled with enigmas just waiting to be answered; they had to wait an entire week for help. 

Harukawa stiffly ambled along with the other two, her hands swaying calmly along her sides. She had been having stomach pains all day, as she hadn't eaten food in 2 days; as the trooper, Maki recapitulated to ignore the sense. 

The atmosphere was dank, and a silence lingered in the air, ceaseless. Dusk had begun to settle in, and they had all become worn after a day of utterly nothing to do. A bright light left sun patches along the path where no life stood- the students eventually reached the gazebo. Life hung onto the gazebo like a red string; it looked like it could collapse at any minute. Weak, shaky poles supporting it, and the many of petals from the flowers now lay on the concrete. 

Yumeno sat down swiftly and crumbled her legs to her chest, her head drooping. She sleepily moved her arm to pat the spot next to her, furthermore, Saihara rested himself next to the magician. Maki sat down as well, without instructions to do so, but she lay further away from the others. 

Everyone sat in quietness, and only the soft rustle of the grass ringed in their ears. 

Nothing occurred for the next hour: Yumeno drifted to sleep finally, and Maki had finished with a prompt exercise. 

"Seven days..." Saihara mumbled under his breath. "Dear Lord, how are we going to live another week?" Shuichi rambled on his endless questions, unable to let his emotions in. He talked to whoever was listening (Maki, in this instance) and spoke to her aimlessly about what was frustrating him.

Saihara finished, then took in a deep breath. He looked at Harukawa, who was still glancing at the gaping hole in the cage; where now stars twinkled. "Sorry," He said. "I didn't mean to ramble on for so long." 

Harukawa looked at Saihara, blank-faced. "It's fine," She said blankly, braiding the ends of her long, long brown hair. She paused for a while before continuing the conversation. "Are you going to sleep soon? It's late." She glanced over at him for a response.

Saihara nodded, "I guess so. Goodnight, Harukawa-san," He lay his back on the concrete. "Thanks for listening." 

Shuichi drifted off slowly, his palms still sweating from his aimless thoughts. His eyelids were heavy, and it was easy to sleep once he had calmed. 

✩ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩

The flyers had been passed out everywhere; it was so nostalgic to Saihara, as this had happened just a few months ago. Dark circles hung under his eyes restlessly as he clenched one he had picked up from the convenience store. Bright bold letters imprinted on the top, bright red and a jet black: DANGANRONPA 53. 

A grin crept up his face, he had binge-watched all previous 52 seasons last night and was high on caffeine. He had each execution engraved into his brain. His personal favorite was in season 31, where a knife thrower was... Nevermind, Saihara was supposed to focus on now, not 4:31 AM. 

Saihara sighed, the dismal Sunday morning had dawned, and all he had to do was write his name on this pamphlet. His hand trembled as the black ink dribbled over the sheet. Once the pen touched paper, it was like a new door opened, Saihara had trouble thinking at the moment, spelling his name wasn't too hard, was it? First an 'S', then an 'A', he was on a roll so far.

Once his name was on the page, it didn't seem like it was his own. A downtown-feel trailed in the coffee shop he sat in. He saw people pass by from the large window he sat by. The date... It was October 2nd, right? Nobody remembers what day it is this late in the year. Saihara brushed off his additional thoughts and wrote down a perpendicular 10.2 on the page. Then it came age, weight, height, and much more... personal questions. 

The busy streets next to the café hastened with civilians either on their way to work, taking a stroll or looking for what he was. A bright billboard had Saihara pulling his cap down a little lower as it was so bright. Bold, vivid letters would catch anyone's eye; it was just another season of Danganronpa. They made a big deal out of all of them. 

Saihara's phone vibrated in his pocket, he reached down to his breast pocket, where he pulled out a gray, simple-looking flip phone. There was a Monokuma charm attached to it, and the bear itself was hanging onto the chain. It would be cute; of course if you didn't know that the bear was a psychopathic murder machine. He used his thumb in order to push open the phone, and the notification of an alert had arrived. 

“DANGANRONPA 53: Amami Rantaro for another season?" 

He groaned. This would be his 4th season if he were to get into 53. Shuichi stared down at his own flyer and closed his phone to ignore the news flash. He pushed out his chair, then stared at his cup. Untouched. Cream lay atop of the now cold beverage, in the twirls of a heart. The spoon next to it had no fingerprints on it either, the coffee was freezing cold. Saihara decided it was a mistake to not drink the espresso, as it looked delectable. That wasn't the only mistake he made that day.

Shuichi sent in his admission form into the front desk at Danganronpa Incorporated.

And unfortunately, Shuichi was called back. He remembers getting the email like it was yesterday. Forwarded to 15 other students, Shuichi only recognized Amami Rantaro's. His breath was scattered, and the patterns were sparse. 

Shuichi was worried, anxious, scared. He didn't know if this was the best decision he'd ever make- or the worst one. 

✩ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩

Saihara woke up in cold sweats the next morning. His forehead felt hot, just as his expresso would've been if he had drunk it in time.

**Author's Note:**

> Whoops, I forgot to add notes at first---
> 
> Anyways, this is the first fanfiction I've decided to continue (hopefully) and I apologize if it's bad because I usually write at 2 in the morning.


End file.
